The second idea for child-friendly prayer/worship was from CBBC’s Art Ninja program(!), specifically The Day of the Bug episode (although I’m guessing the iPlayer link will expire in a week or so).

It needs a little bit of organisation and time – but the basic idea is that you create a large (A4 or A3) picture of your fingerprint, with the prayer bit being that we’re each special and uniquely made by God, so all the fingerprints are different. It is a two-stage process (especially with lots of children), so is probably best done either over two days/sessions, depending on your context.

You will need:

An inkpad

A piece of paper per person

A photocopier, or scanner and computer and A4/A3 printer

PVA Glue and glittter

(optional) cardboard picture frame slightly bigger than A4 or A3

You start by taking a fingerprint of each person, using an ink-pad and paper (remember to name/label each one!)

Then blow this up, using a photocopier or scanner/printer, until it nearly fills an A4 (or A3) sheet. Again remember to label each one.

Now, carefully paint PVA glue over the blown-up fingerprint lines.

Then cover the whole page in glitter, so the PVA glue is covered.

If using a picture frame, when the PVA is dried, frame it!

Once they’re framed, you can display them all, and use them as a celebration of how we’re made!

Just wanted to jot down a couple of really good ideas for child friendly worship/prayer activities I’ve come across in the past few days.

The first was courtesy of Nick and Becky Drake at Spring Harvest this year (which was in Harrogate – amazing! Also come back in 2019, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.)

You have 3 large boards/blackboards set up at the front, one that says “School/Work”, one says “Home”, and one says “Relationships”.

You then have 8 sets of sheets of large stickers, each set of sheets printed with a fruit of the Spirit:

love,

joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness, and

self-control.

The prayer activity is then to identify which fruit and area of life you would like to ask God to help you with – so it might be for joy at school, or love at home, or patience in relationships – you get the idea.

Each person then comes up to front, gets a sticker with their particular fruit on, and sticks it onto the relevant blackboard.

At the end you end up with the boards covered in stickers (you obviously need to choose boards that are an approppriate size for the number of people) – which we all hold up in prayer to God. It’s good for adults to join in with too.

I intend to keep this site going with photos, reviews, random thoughts (not that there has been a lot of that recently – doing a theology degree will have that effect!), but my main blogging will now be on t’other site.

This isn’t a sacred/secular divide thing, it’s more like the difference between the editorial and the cartoons in the newspaper. I will leave you to decide which one you think is which!!

While the journey is by no means ending on the 1st July, it is a significant milestone, and many would hold that I will be something different after the Bishop has laid hands on me (the posh phrase is an “ontological change”) – and again when I am priested in 2018, God willing.

I personally find it unhelpful to set clergy too far apart from non-ordained people, after all I will remain a member of laity, like all other baptised believers. On the other hand, there is a sense of being set apart, and that something does change on ordination – if it didn’t then why would we bother? I have never (yet?) come up with a satisfactory answer of “why” I should be ordained, but I’ve come to think that it’s not actually the important question. The important question is whether or not God is calling me (or you) to this slightly odd role/ministry/state of being, and I have to say that I feel, along with those who know me best and the wider church, the answer is “yes” for me.

Of course, the truth is we are all changing all the time. I am firmly of the opinion that Jesus calls ALL of us to a life of discipleship – which means always learning, growing, striving to more like Him. This isn’t to say that anything we do can make us any more loved (or less loved) by God, but if we are loved by God, and love Him in return, then we live our lives on a different page from the world around us, and that doesn’t always (often!) come naturally or easily.

I have found the last 3 years (ish) of theological education very hard work, but there is no doubt in my mind that I now look at the world in a different way. I think differently about the Bible and God, about Mission, about Jesus and His ministry. My understanding of Church has developed and deepened, and my outlook on life is perhaps more nuanced then it used to be. Fundamentally my faith hasn’t changed, but I have been stretched and deepened, often in uncomfortable ways!! I’m looking forward to sharing some of this with my new congregation, and learning from them in turn. I’m excited about what lies ahead for us as a family. And my hope and prayer is that God will continue to guide us all in his mysterious, but good, ways.